tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18631290862475654662024-02-20T04:19:17.526-08:00Sidra ReviewsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1863129086247565466.post-360224749393236522013-06-29T21:54:00.004-07:002013-06-30T11:18:58.497-07:00Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329681513l/7514925.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tiger Lily" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329681513l/7514925.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><u>Synopsis from <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7514925-tiger-lily">Goodreads:</a></u> <span id="freeText10913996253851148392"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . <br /><br />Fifteen-year-old
Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she
meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland
and immediately falls under his spell.<br /><br />Peter is unlike anyone
she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her.
As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's
inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is
risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is
faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose
between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain
future with Peter.<br /><br />With enemies threatening to tear them apart,
the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an
English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily
to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the
most loyal and loving heart.<br /><br />From the New York Times bestselling
author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance
between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392"><u>My Reaction:</u> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">The first time I ever read an Anderson book, I was eleven years old, curled up in my bed, reading her May Bird series. It was terrifying and yet, I couldn't put the book down. Years later, Anderson's words have managed to ensnare me yet again, leaving me breathless, horrified, and once again, falling in love. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">We all know the story of Peter Pan. Boy doesn't want to grow up. Boy meets girl. Boy shows girl Neverland. Girl grows up anyway. But <i>Tiger Lily </i>is so much more than that. It is the story of first love, heartbreak, acceptance, and the horrifying realities of life. Told in Tinker Bell's point of view (who until recently was not one of my favorite characters in Peter Pan), Tiger Lily and Peter Pan's love story is narrated in an innocent manner and highlights the purity and growth of their relationship. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">This story is honestly nothing like Peter Pan. Peter Pan's world was a beautiful one, one with magic and youth and eternal possibilities for life. But Tiger Lily's world is different. It is a savage and cruel world, one with death, disease, and despair. Anderson completely re imagined Neverland in her novel, showing the reader the true face of the island that we had come to love as children. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">I think the winning factor for me as pertaining to this story was the careful and constructive shaping of the characters. Each character, whether it be Tiger Lily, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, or even Mr. Smee, they all have shades of grey and consist of both good and evil. No one is portrayed as completely evil and neither is anyone portrayed as completely good. Anderson embodies the true human spirit with all its flaws in her characters, who take both the right decisions and the wrong. Tiger Lily is devastatingly beautiful. She is a lonely girl, wild in her own way and persistent. She is hands down, a great heroine. Peter Pan? Oh where do I begin, you handsome, charming devil, you. Peter Pan, in Anderson's novel, is a boy of contradictions and transforms from the Peter Pan we know to Peter, who is truly human in all his ways. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">Honestly, I feel like I can go on and on about this book and how much it made me cry and laugh and hate and love Anderson all at the same time. But I'll leave that to you! </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">My rating for the novel because it was just amazing, honestly put: </span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392"> </span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.clker.com/cliparts/I/q/f/d/n/u/si-s-five-star-hi.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="36" src="http://www.clker.com/cliparts/I/q/f/d/n/u/si-s-five-star-hi.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392"><br /></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">Do check it out and make sure to leave your thoughts! </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span id="freeText10913996253851148392">- Sidra </span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1863129086247565466.post-75124482966331143902013-06-25T15:24:00.001-07:002013-06-30T11:19:26.691-07:00For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1338529086l/8306761.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="For Darkness Shows the Stars (For Darkness Shows the Stars, #1)" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1338529086l/8306761.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><u>Synopsis from <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8306761-for-darkness-shows-the-stars">Goodreads</a>:</u></b></span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19px;">It's been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19px;">Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family's estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot's estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth--an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19px;">But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret--one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she's faced with a choice: cling to what she's been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she's ever loved, even if she's lost him forever.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19px;">Inspired by Jane Austen's </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19px;">Persuasion</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19px;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19px;">For Darkness Shows the Stars</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 19px;"> is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">My Reaction:</u> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">This book... This book is
just amazing. From the characters to the plot to the way the new world of
the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Luddites and the
Reduced is structured; it's all just perfect. A few months ago, I was quite
literally </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">obsessing </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">over Jane Austen, and most specifically,
her novel </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Persuasion. </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Quite incidentally it was
around the same time that while searching through Goodreads , I came across
this one and decided to try it out. I mean, it </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">is</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> based off of
Jane Austen, I just had to. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Even though I'm not the
biggest fan of dystopian novels, I still managed to become totally and
completely enthralled by the injustices and the fantastic scientific and moral
challenges that the people of this new world have to conquer. <i>For
Darkness Shows the Stars </i> is a story of lovers and friends, once
betrayed by their own hindrances and beliefs, and now reunited, but with a
barrier of hate and anger still separating them. The writing is
beautiful and really brings to light the internal struggle that Elliot faces
throughout the novel, not only as a lover but also as a daughter, as a friend,
and as a rebel against the teachings of her society. Elliot is strong and
independent. Yes, she's pissed at Kai for being a knucklehead. But no, she
doesn't let that break her. Throughout the novel, as our dear Captain Malakai
Wentworth acts like a jerk, Elliot keeps her head held high and continues
to assist her people. The letters exchanged between Kai and Elliot
throughout the novel also offer a somewhat comedic relief while also giving readers
a glimpse into Kai's mind and why he does what he does throughout the
novel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Admittedly, Kai is really
not a nice person 95% of the novel. And to be completely honest, I wanted to
hate him so much. But I just couldn't! Throughout the novel, while also understanding
Elliot's pain and humiliation, the reader also learns to sympathize with Kai
and learns that though he might not always do the right thing, he does so
because he's been hurt by the one person he trusted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">All in all, I give this
book a whooping FIVE stars for being perfection. Thank you Peterfreund for such
a fascinating read. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Check out the next book in the <i>For Darkness Shows the Stars </i>installment: <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16102412-across-a-star-swept-sea">Across a Star Swept Sea</a> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Don't forget to leave your thoughts! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">- Sidra </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2